Uncommon Grounds : The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

__Uncommon Grounds__ tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks. In this updated edition of the classic work, Mark Pendergrast reviews the dramatic changes in coffee culture over the past decade, from the disastrous "Coffee Crisis" that caused global prices to plummet to the rise of the Fair Trade movement and the "third-wave" of quality-obsessed coffee connoisseurs. As the scope of coffee culture continues to expand, Uncommon Grounds remains more than ever a brilliantly entertaining guide to the currents of one of the world's favorite beverages. From the Publisher: Uncommon Grounds is the definitive history of coffee-from its discovery on an Ethiopian mountainside to the age of Starbucks and the coffee crisis of the twenty-first century. A sweeping epic, Uncommon Grounds uses coffee production, trade, and consumption as a window through which to view broad historical themes: the clash and blending of cultures, slavery, the rise of brand marketing, global inequities, fair trade, revolutions, health scares, environmental issues, and the rediscovery of quality. Replete with a cast of eccentric characters-all of them suffused with a passion for the golden bean-Uncommon Grounds is nothing less than a coffee-flavored history of the world, the classic work on coffee culture, fully updated for our times Coffee colonizes the world The coffee kingdoms The American drink The great coffee wars of the Gilded Age Hermann Sielcken and Brazilian valorization The drug drink Growing pains Making the world safe for coffee Selling an image in the Jazz Age Burning beans, starving campesinos Showboating the Depression Cuppa joe Coffee witch hunts and instant nongratification Robusta triumphant A scattered band of fanatics The black frost The specialty revolution The Starbucks experience Final grounds.